Antiques

 Do you have days when you feel like an antique? It happens to me from time to time, but thankfully very rarely! 

I don't often visit antique shops as I never seem to find anything, so what's the point? Last week, I had a chance to pop into one for a few minutes, and I thought, "why not?" Well, I managed to pick up some old photographs for 50 cents each, which is rare in antique shops. BUT I also found a treasure, so I think the timing was meant to be. 

Pretty much the first thing I saw when I walked in was this quilt. It was all bundled up in a basket on the bottom of a shelf, but my eye zeroed in on it. I opened it up, and well, it's a very nice quilt. Actually, I should say that it's a quilt top, not a quilt. It's hand-pieced and rightly so with all those crazy seams. 

Vintage quilt top

I bought it because of the unusual pattern. And holy - that green fabric was a trendy color in its day. 

Here's a close up of the block—a very unusual pattern indeed and a lot of elongated diamonds. The fabrics are in excellent condition, and my guess is that these are from dressmaking fabrics in the '40s and '50s. They look very similar to fabrics that my Mom used to make quilts from. Maybe even the 60's. The quilt is definitely NOT an antique but could be called vintage. 

One of the blocks in the quilt

It was time to dig out my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns to see if I could find the quilt. There's a brand new version of this book that has been put together by Barbara Brackman and EQ8. While the book isn't super expensive, it's the shipping from the US that is crazy. I know one Canadian company that had it on sale two weeks ago. But I'm waiting. I doubt that the book will go fast, and if it does, well, I'm OK with that. I have the original, and it works for me. If you live in Canada and really want it, you can order it from Hamels Fabrics. 

Encyclopedia of PIeced Quilt Patterns

A quick browse through the chapters, and I found the pattern or as close as I'm going to get. The star points in my version seem to have longer points in the star, but I think that's just an illusion. 

The quilt pattern in the book

The one thing I'm a little disappointed about is the information in the book. It's very sketchy, but it's better than nothing. Here's what it says about this pattern. 

When I checked the other two references shown above, it didn't mean much. Perhaps I'll go back this morning to see if those references make more sense. 

So how much did I pay for the quilt top? The price tag said $39, so that was a deal in itself, but it was on sale when I went to pay for it, and I paid $31 for it. Yep - I was happy. I hear stories about others constantly finding good deals in antique shops, and I never find anything. Now I can die happy!

Now I know you're asking what I'm going to do with it. Should I quilt it or leave it as a quilt top? Well, I might just end up quilting it. Why not? It would be better to see the quilt on display from time to time, instead of stuck in a drawer. I'll see how it goes. There are a few other quilts that are in front of that one!

Yes - I'm hitting the long arm hard this week, and I hope to get back on track. I'm behind, and let's just leave it like that. I was supposed to be cleaning the office one or two mornings this week, and that might just have to be put on hold until next week. I'm OK with that. I'm about to start working on a NEW pile of paperwork, and the best news? Not much in that pile is urgent. But it does need to be dealt with. I'm a piler, not a filer, and I'm trying to change that!

And I'm planning on doing a jigsaw puzzle or two over the holidays. I can't even call them holidays as I'll be working every day! But here's my latest addition to the puzzle collection. I'll work on this one and one more. That's my goal - two puzzles between now and getting back into the full swing of things. I cannot start it now because I'm obsessed, and nothing else will get done, so I've got to make sure that all the quilts are out the door - then I can crack the seal on it!

Jigsaw puzzle

I got my barn quilt block done for my homework this month. Yeah, and the extra task for this month was to make a donation to the food bank. Done and done! 

Barn quilt block

I also managed to get through that second box of blue scraps for the project I'm working on. No - you can't see the quilt, but it's almost done. But even after pulling enough fabric for the quilt top out of the scrap boxes, I still have two almost full boxes of blue scraps. How can that be?? At some point, I'm going to have to go through them once again and do something else, but it just shows you how much fabric is contained in these small shoe boxes. I started with three, now I'm down to two, but one of them wasn't that full. 

My second box of blue scraps

I should work on using up the yardage pieces since they take the most room. Then I can save the scrap boxes when I need to downsize since they take a lot less room. Since I do not need to make that decision at this moment, everything stays as is!!!

Well, it's time to get to work! We have Monday sewing today, and I've got a "few" things to work on. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!